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Labour Representation Committee: a chance to regain momentum

The Labour Representation Committee, a Labour-left group sponsored by six trade unions and associated with John McDonnell MP, holds its conference on 14 November.

According to LRC: "The original Labour Representation Committee was formed in 1900 to fight for political representation for the Labour Movement. In Britain today we face a similar crisis of representation. The task for today's LRC, founded in 2004, is to fight for power within the Labour Party and trade unions and to appeal to the tens of thousands who have turned away from Labour in disillusion and despair".

Some LRC insiders, however, have said to Solidarity that in recent months the group has lacked the momentum it had when John McDonnell sought nominations to run for Labour Party leader against Gordon Brown after Tony Blair’s departure in 2007.

LRC had no big part in the victory against the platform at Labour Party conference on election of the National Policy Forum, and the “Public Services Not Private Profit” campaign associated with LRC has not made much running against the public-service cuts now flagged up as likely in 2010.

Back in June John McDonnell talked of creating a distinctive left "slate" within the Labour campaign at the coming general election, with a platform counterposed both to the Tories and to the Labour leadership. But nothing has been heard of that since then.